Kolkata has upstaged Delhi as the air pollution capital of India, accounting for more deaths due to lung cancer and heart attack than the capital city.

More than 18 persons per one lakh people in Kolkata fall victim to lung cancer every year compared to the next highest 13 per one lakh in Delhi, according to environmental scientist and advisor of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI), Twisha Lahiri.

Not only lung cancer, cases of heart attack were also rising fast in the Eastern metropolis, Lahiri said quoting a six-year survey conducted by the cancer institute.

Friends,

We can save someone's life by donating our blood.

Every day we are hearing from our friends, collegues, relatives or their knowing persons need blood. Any one can check

http://www.friendstosupport.org/index.aspx

and get their information like contact information of blood donor, so they can reach them directly.

Any one can get in touch with blood donor by providing their information within the website.

Vedanta Resources, a London-based mining company, is planning to set up Chhattisgarh's first super-speciality cancer hospital here.

The company has sought expression of interest (EOI) from reputed firms for construction of the hospital, complete with modern technology. It will be spread over 40 acres in the state capital here, the company said Friday.

'Vedanta is keen to begin work on the cancer hospital and the super speciality health care centre projects in Raipur by December or January,' Pramod Suri, an official of the company, told IANS.

Raipur, Oct 3 - Chhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will ban gutkha, or chewing tobacco, in the state from Jan 1 next year.

The decision was taken after Chief Minister Raman Singh found to his horror that thousands of schoolchildren and youth were addicted to gutkha, said a top official.

The chief minister has instructed officials to move for a complete ban on the manufacture, storage, sale and advertising of gutkha products from the new year.

As many as 51 Indian cities have extremely high air pollution, Lucknow, Raipur, Faridabad and Ahmedabad topping the list.

An environment and forest ministry report, released Friday, has identified 51 cities that do not meet the prescribed Respirable Particulate Matter (RSPM) levels, specified under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

In 2005, an Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) placed India at 101st position among 146 countries.

The promises made to the people and the state of Chhattisgarh by Vedanta chairman, Anil Agarwal one year ago on the occasion of signing a MoU between the State Government of Chhattisgarh and Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. (BALCO), for setting up a 1200 MW coal based power project have all been met.

Raipur, July 31 - The Chhattisgarh government has been holding emergency health camps and is providing medical facilities round the clock in Gabhora village of Kawardha district from where eight deaths were reported during the weekend.

Chief Minister Raman Singh has instructed officials of Kwardha district, about 250 km from here, to tone up health facilities in remote villages and provide free medical care to all tribals.

The instruction was issued after eight members of the Baiga tribe, a community on the verge of extinction, died last weekend in Gabhora village.

Raipur, July 28 - Six tribals, including three women, died of suspected food poisoning in Chhattisgarh's Kawardha district and 25 were taken ill after consuming wild mushrooms, officials said Saturday.

All the victims belonged to the Baiga tribal community, which is on the verge of extinction in the state, in Gabhora village, over 280 km from here.

'District Collector Sonmoni Vora has ordered for a magisterial inquiry into the matter and a team of doctors was rushed to the village where about two dozens more Baigas were reported to be ill,' a health department official told IANS.

RAIPUR: A hyena has been found to be suffering from the deadly anthrax disease at Nandanvan Zoo on the city's outskirts, leading to the zoo's closure for 15 days.

"All symptoms of anthrax were found in one of the hyenas at the zoo on Tuesday," a forest department official said on Wednesday. After the wild animal was found to be suffering from the disease, the zoo has been closed for 15 days.

Raipur, June 1: A rare surgical operation to separate 10-month-old conjoined twins that was successfully conducted here at a facility-deprived government hospital will revolutionise India's rural health sector, medical experts say.

A team of doctors at the Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Hospital scripted a rare and successful chapter in the history of India's medical sector May 29 when they detached conjoined twins who were attached at the stomach and shared a liver.